But don't they want to share their gifts with people? Especially those in need?

their gift is infused contemplation, intimate union with Christ in prayer which by its nature is a private thing. what is to share? if they are also called as spiritual directors, like Juan de la Cruz and Teresa, they will serve in that way, but probably without boasting of their mysticism

__________________Whatever the Lord pleases He does, on heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps. Ps. 135

But don't they want to share their gifts with people? Especially those in need?

Normally when souls become intimate with God it is a a very private affair. In the early days of monastacism in the desert the hermits went as far away from people as possible. They were often sought out by others and they tried to go hide, because contact with others meant they could not remain in contact with God. In cloisters, the saints tell us the more time they spend in the parlor or the room where visits with family or the public take place the more they are distracted from their prayer and union with God. Being in front of many people and being sought after and admired destroys initmacy with God and the soul. Saint Therese died at 24 in about 1895 and then became the most popular saint of the 20th century. Her life became public after her death. JPII gave ther the title doctor. Sanctity would have been impossible for her if she could not have had her life in Carmel. She would not have had anything to share unless she was able to have her cloistered life. The only reason anyone knows about her is she was ordered to write "Story of a Soul". How many thousands of others have there been who lived and died unknown? We don't know. Those who are intimate with God bring more grace into the world through their lives of prayer than those who go on the lecture circuit and write books. It is ancient wisdom that the contemplative life is more grace filled than the active life, but it depends on what the person's calling is. There are a few mystics who are called to public life, like Catherine of Sienna. Most remain hidden.

I'm guessing there are a lot of them, and not all in convents or monasteries either. I know of no reason to think one has to be out of the world in order to be a true mystic. If the definition of a mystic is, roughly, one who lives in a sort of constant, intimate union with God, I suspect I have known some.

Without limiting it, there was one man who was very much in the world, very savvy. But I never even so much as heard of anything he ever did that was at all suggestive of sinfulness, and people regarded him as a sort of "secular saint". I recall seeing things confront him that were disturbing. You could see them impact him; then he would kind of "withdraw", for maybe minutes, but more often seconds, as if he was in some kind of "conversation". Then he would suddenly be "ok" and would know just what to do or say. He was far from being "preachy", but if some moral issue came up, he would simply address it in a few sentences, and sometimes it amazed, but it always seemed exactly, precisely correct. He was very successful, but you could tell his worldly success was more of a "love of the game" than the success itself. He made a lot of money, but spent most of it helping ordinary people out in one way or another. He wasn't big on organized charity, but he always seemed to know what individuals were in need. His prayer life was regular, and seemingly a bit more than the usual, but not hugely out of the ordinary as near as I could tell. He had a sort of "prescience" and would show up with exactly the right thing at exactly the right time to provide relief or safety to someone, without having any "normal" basis at all to even know it was needed. Many people remarked at that, and thought it represented some kind of special gift. He didn't think so himself. If asked about it (which he often was) he just smiled and shrugged and said he didn't know. I'm not sure he did know. He was an extremely aware individual. He was jovial and easily pleased. But one always had the feeling that he was "tapped into" something beyond the world we're all aware of. It wasn't spooky at all. You just had the feeling that he had ways of knowing that you didn't. His death was peaceful. He was ill for maybe two weeks, and seemed not to suffer at all. Maybe three days before his death, he reported having a visit from a person dear to him who was long dead. He reported it very matter-of-factly, to his wife only, as if it was nothing remarkable at all. She wasn't totally sure what to make of it, but was reasonably persuaded it was literally true. She was a very practical sort of woman, and always admitted there was a big part of him she didn't quite comprehend.

I have known others who have, in some measure, shared characteristics like that. I don't know. Maybe he was just an unusually smart and decent guy who was a good Catholic at the same time. But I always thought there was a lot more to it than that.

Anyway, as I said, I suspect there are lots of people out there who could properly be called "mystics". I'm not totally sure they all know that's what they are.

There is a book called "Conchita" that is about a Mexican woman who was married and raised a family of seven or eight. I read this book a while back.

It described her life, very prayerful, living in the Presence of the Lord. She took care of all her household duties and her children faithfully. The book has many things she has written in it, and the reader can tell that she lived a deeply prayerful life.

Yes, it is very possible to live in the world, but to not be of the world. God's grace makes it possible, if we cooperate.

deana
I have asked the same question. I have wanted to meet someone today still living who is truely a mystic. So far I have not found any that are still alive. I have met some who knew one that I believe was a mystic. Although the person was not catholic but was a christian who lived in the early 1900s. Her name was Martha Wing Robinson. There is a book that was written about her that contains memours from her diary and various lettars that she wrote during her life. Here is a little of what she wrote. I find it very simular to what the catholic mystics have said. Each seems to say the same thing. Its only that they use differant terms to describe the same thing.

Inwardness

When Jesus first sets vesselsⁿ to love Him, He wants them to see Him all the time, every moment, and if they are very much in earnest, they live that way—moment by moment.
”

In the beginning of such experience, most of the time they pray, praise, wait on God, commune, and often, if at work, see Jesus in the soul.

If they grow in this experience and become vessels of God for His use, they begin to seek more for Him, and He comes more to them, for He does to all who seek Him from the heart.

Also, He begins to draw their thoughts all the time—every moment—to Himself, causing them to find Him within. This is the beginning of the inward or deeper life.

As soon as this change takes place, He then teaches, if He can make them to get it, either by teachers or by their light, how to “practice the presence of God”—that is, to keep the mind stayed on Jesus—each wandering thought, act, word or feeling being recalled (i.e., called back) by the will of the vessel in the love of God.

However, this takes care. Often the mind lingers over a subject not of God. Turn the mind back to God. Words come not appointed by Him. Check such words at once, as soon as remembered. Look within and tell Jesus He rules, you will act, think, and speak as He would, and He will look after you to help you to be like that.

Also, you need to watch and pray to be in God, wait in God, etc. To so live for a time makes the inward change to abide in anyone who will go down to thus live; but if you keep to this lowliness, rest, and faith to be all the time in God so, then the voluntary act of dwelling in God, seeing God, thinking of God, and keeping in is done altogether by the Holy Ghost, which is the true inwardness called for in every Christian.

In the book by Father Thomas Dubay titled "Fire Within" (Ignatius Press), Father Dubay points out that contemplation can be achieved, to a greater or lesser degree, by the grace of God, for all open to it.

This prayerful life becomes a waterfall of grace to the person, and to others around him/her. And, the Lord can provide graces to those we do not even know in this life, through the prayer of such people.

Yes, it is a gift, but we need to dispose ourselves to seeking this union with the Lord by prayer, mortification and the practice of the virtues, and He will take notice.

Some have this gift to a greater degree, and they are a bright light for others. They get labeled as "mystics".

I have the acquaintance of a priest, a Franciscan, whose very presence evokes an awareness of the presence of Christ. He seems entirely unaware of it, however, and is a very humble man.

There is something I can only call holy about this man, and people who have met him and spoken to him, or gone to one of his talks or studies have remarked they have felt they were in the presence of a Saint. He is fairly well-known in this area, as he gives retreats, spiritual direction, missions, talks at parishes, etc. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is very personable, but there is an otherworldly dimension to him. I have wondered at times if he a mystic. I consider him a living saint, but he will probably never be canonized.